In many industries, diagnostic systems play an increasingly important role in manufacturing processes, as well as in maintenance and repair throughout the lifetime of the equipment or product. Some diagnostic systems are based on personal computer technology and feature user-friendly, menu-driven diagnostic applications. These systems assist technicians and professionals at all levels in performing system diagnostics on a real-time basis.
A typical diagnostic system includes a display on which instructions for diagnostic procedures are displayed. The system also includes a system interface that allows the operator to view real-time operational feedback and diagnostic information. Thus, the operator may view, for example, vehicle engine speed in revolutions per minute, or battery voltage during start cranking; or a patient's heartbeat rate or blood pressure. With such a system, a relatively inexperienced operator may perform advanced diagnostic procedures and diagnose complex operational or medical problems.
It is desirable to provide a method and apparatus to identify all of the known or possible symptoms that can be associated with a failure mode or with a vehicle component for a type of test subject, and for correlating the symptoms with the corresponding failure mode or component for that type of test subject. Further, identification of a common symptom related to a specific problem can lead to greater accuracy in fixing or even avoiding the problem in like test subjects of the same type.